DIFFUSION - STUDIES ON DIFFUSION

Today I will be talking about the terms called Diffusion In my last post, I made a introduction to diffusion and today I will be continuing from there.

Source- Pixabay

RATES OF DIFFUSION

Diffusion as we all know is a relatively slow process. There are different numbers of factors which affect the rate at which Diffusion takes place. One of these is concentration. If there is a large difference existing in concentration between two areas, the rate at which diffusion will takes place will be quickly. But when a substance moving from a higher concentration to a lower concentration or perhaps a bit lower, the movement towards the less concentrated area will appear to be relatively small.

Source- Pixabay

Why? Though some movement of some particles into the area of the lower concentration by the random movement, at the same time also, other identical particles are also leaving that area by movement which are random. To put it in a mathematical view, The overall or should I say net movement = The particles moving in - The particles moving out.

The faster the rate of diffusion that takes place, it is as a result of the bigger difference in concentration. This lead to concentration gradient which is the difference between two areas of concentration. And also the bigger the difference, the steeper the gradient will be.

Not to limit the factors I talked about earlier, concentration factor is not the only factor that affects the rate of diffusion. Temperature is also a contributing factor to the rate at which diffusion takes place. When temperature increases, the particles in a gas or probably a solution move more quickly. This made me to draw a conclusion that diffusion will take place more rapidly as the random movement of the particles also speeds up.

Source- Pixabay

Diffusion is always passive. I.e it usually takes place along a concentration gradient from high to low concentration and uses up no energy.

DIFFUSION IN LIVING ORGANISMS

There are many important substances in our body which are able to move across our cell membrane by the Diffusion process. For example, the oxygen commonly needed for our respiration passed easily from the air into our lungs and then after into our body cells only by the Diffusion process. There is a steep concentration between the oxygen in the air and our blood, so the oxygen moves into the blood quickly by diffusion.

Then, there is a similar steep diffusion gradient between the blood and your body cells, which need oxygen- so again the oxygen quickly diffuses from your blood into your body cells.

Also to look at as an example is the waste carbon dioxide. The waste carbon dioxide which are produced by your body cells are passes out easily also by the Diffusion process. The simple sugars examples like the glucose and the amino acids which is gotten from the end breakdown of proteins in our guts also passes through the cell membranes in our body by the Diffusion process.

Because Diffusion can be a relatively slow process like I have explained at the beginning of my post, individual cells are often adapted to make Diffusion easier and move rapid. As the movement of the substances into and out of the cells takes place across the body cell membranes, the most common adaptation is to increase the surface area of the cell membrane over which diffusion occurs.

Only so many particles of a substance such as the oxygen can diffuse over a given surface area, so increasing the surface area means that there is more room for diffusion to take place.

By folding up the membrane of a cell, the area over which diffusion can take place is greatly increased and so the amount of substance moved by Diffusion is also greatly increased.

ADAPTATIONS OF ORGANS FOR DIFFUSION

After talking about the rates of Diffusion and the how diffusion takes place in living organisms, there is also a need to talk about how our various organs body adapt for Diffusion process.

It isn't only cells that can be adapted to make diffusion more efficient as many people will have thought. The tissues lining an organ, or even the whole organ itself, may be adapted as well also. The lungs of human beings and many others animals are specially adapted to make the movement of oxygen into the body and the removal of waste carbon dioxide more efficient.

The tissue is arranged into clusters of alveoli, tiny air sacs that give ideal conditions for rapid gas exchange by diffusion. If all the air sacs in your lungs are spread out, they would have a surface area of about the size of a tennis court! This will makes it possible for enough diffusion to take place to supply you with the oxygen you need, and also allows you to get rid of carbon dioxide.

In the same way also, the lining of your gut is folded into thousands of tiny finger like projections which are known as villi, which greatly increases the uptake of digested food by Diffusion.

Both systems also have an excellent blood supply that carries away the oxygen or glucose as soon as it has diffuses from one side to the other. This maintains a steep concentration gradient all the time, which makes sure that diffusion is as rapid and efficient as possible.

Plants should also not be left out as they also rely heavily in diffusion to obtain the carbon dioxide they need for photosynthesis and to obtain minerals from the soil. The flattered shape of the plant leaves Increases the surface area for diffusion and the many air spaces inside the leaf allow carbon dioxide to come into contact with lots of cells to aid Diffusion.

Plant roots also have adaptations to help in the uptake of water and minerals. The roots and the individual root cells have adaptations to increase area for the uptake of substances from the soil.

CONCLUSION

I will be stopping here for today and in my next post, I will be talking about Osmosis
Thank you for dedicating your time reading this and I hope you find it enjoyable

REFERENCES

. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion
. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z9r4jxs/articles/znqbcj6
. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmosis
. https://www.britannica.com/science/osmosis